She was sentenced to 10 days in prison, and then sent to a reformatory school for five years. These strict residential schools were meant to teach young criminals a trade to stop them re-offending.

Victorian institutions designed to reform delinquent or vulnerable children were much more successful than today’s youth justice system in assisting children to recover from troubled starts in ...

A study of the lives of 500 children committed to reformatory or industrial schools over a century ago showed that only 22% re-offended during the rest of their lives after their release.

Thirteen-year-old Henry Sutton has tattoos inked up his arm and is guilty of violent assault. At the age of 14, John Bright has a history of truancy, while 12-year-old petty thief Richard Cardwall ...

Victorian institutions designed to reform delinquent or vulnerable children were much more successful than today’s youth justice system in assisting children to recover from troubled starts in life, ...

Video summary. In Victorian times, young orphans, beggars and vagrants could be sent to industrial schools to learn a trade, with the aim of preventing them from falling into a life of crime.